Second Best
by LoveandLearn
Summary: Jake convinces Addison to go to Palm Springs with Henry for a medical conference. The trip doesn't start as smoothly as he had hoped but Jake wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Jaddison one-shot.


"Addison?!" Jake called out as he walked into the house with a stack of mail in his hand. He had a short day at work and it was Addison's day off and he had plans to make good use of their time off together. "Henry?" he walked out onto the deck to see Addison sitting on the sand in a pair of shorts, helping Henry build a sandcastle.

"Hey!" she exclaimed when she looked back to see her husband standing on the deck that towered over behind her. "You're home early. Look, Henry, Daddy is home."

Henry looked up from his sand creation and grinned at his father before turning his attention back to his masterpiece.

"Hey, buddy." he called out to greet his little boy before addressing Addison. "I told you I would be early."

"Yeah, I thought that meant like 6. I didn't you'd be home by..." she paused. "What time is it?"

"It is a little after two." he answered. he replied.

"Wow, was everything okay at work?" Addison asked. "You're not home early because the building is not standing anymore, are you?

"Everything is fine, Addison. We can run the place without you for one day, you know? It didn't fall apart when you were on maternity leave for Henry and it won't fall apart if a you one day off a week. I'm only home early because I didn't have too many patients scheduled." he explained to her. "You guys working on a sandcastle?"

Addison looked back down at the pile of sand her son had assembled. "Sandcastle, pile of sand. Same difference." she said with a shrug.

"I'm gonna go change out of work clothes. Maybe Henry and I can make something that doesn't look like a pile." he said teasingly. "Because god forbid Mommy helps..."

Addison looked up. "You expect me to help him build a sandcastle? I don't wanna touch sand, I just got a manicure yesterday. I don't want sand under my nails. I'm just here so he does eat sand and/or run into the water.

Jake rolled his eyes at her. "Just keep doing that and I'll be back."

"No, don't bother. We've been out here for a while. I don't want him getting too much sun." she said, pushing herself up from the sand and lifting Henry into his arms.

"No!" Henry exclaimed. "Play."

"Daddy's home. Let's go play with Daddy inside." Addison said convincingly to coax her son out of crying. She walked up the steps of the deck and passed Henry into Jake's arm, taking the mail from his hand. "Anything interesting?" she asked as she shuffled through it.

"Your Visa statement is here. For my sanity's sake I decided against opening it." he replied. "And there are two envelopes from SACOG. One for you and one for me."

Addison frowned at the mention of SACOG. She tossed the rest of the envelopes on the table as soon as they walked into the house and opened the one addressed to her. "Palm Springs. JW Marriott. It's in June."

"Inviting you to fill CME hours?" Jake asked.

Addison nodded. "They want me to lead a workshop and they are offering me the role of key note speaker the opening night.."

"Maybe you can do it without a hangover last time." Jake said teasingly.

"I hate Palm Springs. It's a dessert and there is nothing to . It's just that one street and there is nothing on it. Plus it's hot in June. Why not Vegas like any decent convention or conference?"

"Yes, because Vegas is not one street in the middle of dessert that gets ridiculously hot in June."

Addison turned back to Jake with an unamused look on her face. "At least there are things to do. Cirque Du Soleil, the shopping, the dining, the luxury hotels... The only thing you can do in Palm Springs is drink."

Jake rolled his eyes. He was a pretty simply guy, he did not grow up knowing the finer things in life. He found himself in love with a woman who was fed with silver spoon from birth, she had never worried about money and luxury was practically her middle name. "When I call in to make a reservation I will book you an 60 minute massage at the spa."

"Why do you want to go so bad? Do you enjoy being in a room full of people who spend their days sitting between women's legs? Do you wanna spend a whole weekend talking about vaginas and cervixes?

"You do realized that you just insulted your own career, right?

"We're surgeons too. We don't spend all day between someone's legs. Our time is split between that and the OR. And you saw the people there last time, they're all so weird and nerdy. Do you remember that woman who was wearing shoulder pads last time? We're not in the 80s anymore, Jake! Oh, remember the night you forced me to go to the stupid mixer or whatever it was. Do you remember that guy that came up to us at the bar and started talking about mucus plugs? That was his opening line! That's like asking to be made fun of."

"Would you go if I said you don't have to go to the mixer on the first night?"

"Why do you wanna go?" Addison asked again.

Jake remained silent.

"Oh god, please don't tell me you don't enjoy starting conversation about mucus plugs with strangers..."

"I wanna go because I want to spend time with you and our son. No patients to worry about, no household chores to do or errands to run. It's an excuse to go away from a weekend."

Addison met Jake's eyes and saw the honesty seeping from his every word.

"Please?"

"Okay." Addison agreed. "Plus if we take Henry with us that's an excuse to not go to any event that our presence is not required at. 'Dr. Reilly will you be attending the presentation about high risk pregnancies with multiples?' 'No, Dr. Dumbfuck, I have to stay with my son. Luckily, I am not incompetent like some of you and I don't need someone to teach me things I've already learned.'"

"As long as you don't word it in that exact way you can use that excuse as much as you'd like." Jake agreed.

"Oh and just for the record I still hate the acronym SACOG."

* * *

"You doing okay, Buddy?" Jake asked the toddler calmly seated on his lap in the first row of the auditorium. He watched the large, animated slides rolling by on a large screen behind his mother in fascination.

"Mama." Henry said loudly, pointing his little finger in her direction. Addison stopped mid-sentence and chuckled, she brought her index finger up to her lips as a message to her son before apologizing and going on with her speech.

Jake's cheeks flushed with embarrassment when everyone in the first row turn to see him and Henry. He shushed the child, whispering to him that everyone in the crowded auditorium was there to hear his mother speak and he needed to stay quiet. "Do you understand?" he asked patiently.

Henry nodded his head. "Sowwy." he murmured, leaning back against his father's chest to watch the rest of his mother's opening speech in silence.

Toward the end of the speech Jake looked down at the little boy and to discover he had fallen asleep. As soon as the speech was over Jake got up with his son in his arms and walked over to meet Addison as soon as she got down from the stage. She instantly reached out to take Henry from Jake's arms.

"Your son is precious, Dr. Montgomery." a woman compliment.

Addison turned at the sound of her name and saw a woman with shoulder pads standing beside to get a glance of Henry. "Thank you." she said with a smile.

"Will you be attending the dinner tonight? I know everyone here is eagerly waiting for a chance to talk to you."

Addison glanced at Jake then back Shoulder Pads (as Addison liked to call her), "Actually we won't be there. We promised Henry we'd spend the night with him." she answered, pressing a quick kiss to his temple.

"We?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, this is my husband, Dr. Jake Reilly. He is also an Ob/gyn specializing in reproductive medicine and a general surgeon. I'm sure you've heard of him. He's very well known for his work among peers and patients."

"Oh..." the woman reached over to shook Jake's hand. "I'm sorry, I've never heard of your work, Dr. Reilly. You're here to support your wife?"

"Partially. I'm actually presenting myself. I've been invited to speak about the latest technology in reproductive medicine. I'm scheduled to speak tomorrow afternoon but Addie is the celebrity in our family so I'm thrilled to be here with her. I know I'm married to her and we were close friends before getting together but knowing she'll be in the audience still intimidates me a little. It's a humbling honor to know the great Dr. Addison Montgomery will be at your presentation."

"Don't get too flattered. She may only be attending because she's married to you and she's got no choice." the woman said only half jokingly. "But what you don't have to worry about is an empty room. If Dr. Montgomery is going to be there then it will be a full house. But anyway, it was a pleasure to meet you." she said before walking away

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jake asked with a raised brow.

"I uh..." Addison stared back at him speechlessly. "We better get him back to the room so he can sleep in bed. He can't be comfortable like this and we don't want him to be cranky when he wakes up."

"You can go up. I'm gonna stay down here for a while."

"Jake, I'm going to be at your presentation because I want to be there not because I feel forced for any..." Addison started.

He cut her off before she could finish, "Just go."

Addison turned her back to Jake and walked out of the room with her son cuddled and asleep in her arms. She went up to their suite and placed the toddler down in the middle of the bed. She carefully slipped off his shoes and covered him with his favorite blanket. She knew he would freak out if he woke up somewhere unfamiliar without his blanket. After Henry was settled in she kicked off her shoes and reached for the remote to the TV. She turned it on but muted the volume and laid on the king sized bed beside Henry. Jake didn't get back to the room until an hour and a half later. She knew he was upset and it hurt her but she didn't know what to do or say.

"Why are you in bed?" he asked. "I thought we were going to go out to dinner."

"Henry is still sleeping. He'll probably sleep through the night. I don't want to wake him. You can go without me." Normally she would have suggested staying in and ordering room service but she had the feeling that he didn't want to be trapped in a room with her while he was upset.

"The point of coming here was spending time together." he reminded.

"Right..." she nodded. "Is that what you were doing downstairs for the last hour and a half? Spending time with us?" she snapped, unable to control her words.

Jake raised a brow at the comment. "Are we fighting?" he asked unsurely, going to stand by her side of the bed so he could see her no matter what direction she tried to turn in.

"You're mad at me, aren't you?"

"No." he replied honestly. "Why would I be mad at you? What did you do?"

"You seemed upset downstairs." she murmured.

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"I know I didn't." Addison agreed. "But you're old fashioned. You like thinking you're the head of the household and that woman downstairs made you sound inferior to me and I know it upset you. It's not true, Jake. I know I have more recognition but that doesn't make me any better than you. And I'm going to your presentation not because I have to but because you are one of the best doctors I've ever had the pleasure of working with and I wouldn't miss the opportunity to learn from you."

"I'm not mad at you." he told her softly, leaning over her to give her a soft, tender and apologetic kiss.

"You seemed mad." Addison mumbled as Jake's lips parted from hers.

"I was mad because Shoulder Pads was a bitch with no people skills. You were right when you said everyone here is strange. But I was not mad at you, Addison. I am incredibly proud of you. You are an amazing doctor, and yes, you are much better than I am. You deserve all the recognition. You deserve the praise and you deserve being treated like a celebrity at these conferences. You should be treated like this all the time. You save babies for god sakes. How could people not worship the ground you walk on?"

"You're really not mad?"

"No, of course not." he said with a laugh. "Did you really spend all this time up here thinking I'm upset that you're better than me? I knew you were better than me when I married you. It didn't stop me."

"I'm not better than you."

Jake shrugged. "You can lie to yourself and say that all you want, doesn't make it true." he responded. "I was downstairs having drinks with people so they don't think we're snobby, arrogant assholes. I told them you were in the room taking care of our son. I was just killing time thinking you were up here getting ready to go out while Henry naps. I figured you'd come down when you were ready. When you didn't I decided to come up and check on you and thank I did because I would have been waiting down there all night."

Addison chuckled. "In that case I am sorry I overreacted and ruined our plans for tonight."

"It's okay." Jake said with a dismissive shrug. He motion for Addison to move over toward the center of the bed with their son so he could climb in behind her and hold her close. "Henry was on to something with the early bedtime. I know it's a short drive from LA but the heat is exhausting. I think getting all 90 of your bags from the car to the lobby in that heat took more out of me than the drive."

"I don't think we'll be too happy about the early bedtime when he wakes up at 4 am."

"He'll wake up, it'll be dark, he'll see us on either side of him dead asleep. He'll pick someone to cuddle and go back to sleep." Jake assured her. "He does not like be the first person up. He loves being up last. He loves that we practically have to dump cold water on him to get him up. He needs to be the center of attention first thing in the morning without even trying"

Addison smiled, Jake was right about that fact.

"Addie." Jake murmured.

"What?"

"You really are the Meryl Streep of this field. You're a living legend. I could not possibly be any prouder of you. You're incredible and that's part of the reason I love you. I'm so lucky to have you. I don't mind being below you professionally because you've set a bar so high that no one will ever be able to come close to you."

"So you're okay with being Mr. Meryl Streep?"

"I'll have you know that her husband is respected in his field. No one knows his name like they do hers but he's a successful artist. I don't mind being him. Except I'm not Mr. Meryl Streep."

"Oh, that's right. You're Dr. Mr. Meryl Streep."

"No, I'm Mr. Dr. Addison Montgomery and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world."

* * *

A/N: I finally finished a one-shot! That's a BFD because I've started so many and I'm stuck with pretty much all of them. Hope you guys like this one. Who wouldn't want some Jaddison + Henry fluff on Fourth of July?

Reviews would be awesome, btdubs. Oh, and alert me to any typos.


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